


Beginnings: Part Two

by albicocca



Series: Beginnings [2]
Category: Spartacus Series (TV), Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Spartacus: Vengeance
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-23
Updated: 2012-06-23
Packaged: 2017-11-08 09:37:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/441800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/albicocca/pseuds/albicocca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Agron thinks his brother is an idiot.  Duro is an idiot.  They both learn some things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Cowardice is not something anyone would ever accuse him of.  But he’s afraid of this.  He’s seen what love does to a man and what price they pay for it.  It’s a price he’s already starting to pay as he swears he feels his own insides pour from his belly at the sight of the wound. 

______________________________________________________________________ 

 

Duro had been a slave to love long before he became a slave to the Romans.  First, when he was 14 and Agron 16.  Anika was their cousin, daughter to their mother’s brother, a year older than Duro and truly lovely.  Duro had followed her around like a lonely puppy, claiming to be her protector.  As her cousin, he pronounced it his obligation to keep her safe from hands belonging to the many eyes that followed her, wherever she went.  Agron knew she was neither pure of body nor heart, but his brother saw her as an untainted spirit and could be convinced of nothing else.  “He’ll learn” Agron thought, and so he did.  She gave herself to Duro one night.  Accepted his fumblings and inexperience and he worshipped her for it.  The next day, his starry-eyed, addle-brained brother asked her father for her hand in the presence of the family, uncaring that is was not his place to do so.  Uncle Lothar merely shook his head and sighed when her father turned to Anika and asked her, “Do you want him daughter?”

“No father.  He is yet a boy.  I love him as a child, but not as a husband.”

He turned to Duro with amused but kind eyes and said, “You have your answer boy.”

Duro was inconsolable.  “She gave herself to me!” He choked as Huguo shoved more mead into his hands, helpless to do anything else to sooth his broken cousin.  “How can she feel nothing for me?”

Agron tried to explain.  She did feel for him, she was grateful, and found him sweet.  He explained that she lay with him out of gratitude, and the needs of her own body.  Agron was not particularly wise, but Duro was naïve.  “It’s an uncommon thing,” Agron tried to tell him, “for love to join two bodies in a bed.”


	2. Beginnings Part Two: Learning

His brother’s heart was as soft as his head.  It wasn’t always a pretty face that turned Duro’s head but rather, kind words: a compliment, a favor asked that gave him the feeling of being needed, or the attention and gratitude of a favor granted.  Duro would fall in love simply by being noticed.  This didn’t surprise Agron and he felt not a little guilt for it.  Living in the shadow of his elder brother, Duro longed for a place of his own; for love of his own.  It was no secret that Lothar favored the eldest, and his own son after, but Duro didn’t blame them for this.  Agron was strong and provided well for the family, lifting some of the burden from Lothar, allowing him leisure, and a place amongst the elders of their tribe.  He excelled at all he put his hand to; a fine warrior, hunter, substitute father to the small ones, and he brought joy and humor wherever he went.  Agron was the more handsome of the boys and there was never a time or place that he did not draw attention, so he never knew what it meant to have to try.  Agron understood this and viewed it practically if not with humility. 

Finally, one hot summer night when neither could sleep from the stifling air, as thoughts wandered lazily, it occurred to Duro, that Agron might want something different.  It had been a year since his humiliation at Anika’s hands.  His brother was a man now, but had taken no woman.  The time for marriage and children was almost a year past for Agron, yet Lothar never spoke of it.  

“The women seek you out brother.” He stated simply, and out of nowhere. “Where you go, they follow, when you speak, they listen, when you move, they watch. Yet you pay them no mind, and have favored none. I would have a family of my own, making you uncle seven times over by this time, had I but a small part of your admirers.” Duro was more speaking to the sky than his brother. Making a wish on clear, bright stars. There was envy in his voice but not jealousy. 

Agron lay thoughtful for a moment, unsure of whether or not his brother expected an answer.  Duro turned on his side and faced Agron.  “Why do you take no advantage of that for which I would draw blood a thousand times?”  He was teasing, yet in earnest.

Sometimes Duro’s thick head still surprised Agron. He was so consumed with want for the love of a woman, that the dolt failed to comprehend what was clear to the yet child twins. 

Agron blinked for a moment and then replied simply, “I prefer the company of men.”

Duro thought on this statement, considering the different possibilities.  It took only a minute or two for what had always been obvious, to be unveiled within his perpetually preoccupied mind.  “Ahh,” he said, “you would make your life with a man?  A home?”

Agron thought back to the words shared between him and his uncle, two years, and a lifetime ago.  Such a child he had been.  He still believed love was the stuff of nonsense and softer heads, but a companion, perhaps, someone with whom he would share something of himself, such a thing might be possible.  “Yes.”  He answered Duro.  “If I found one worthy, yes.” 

Duro sat up on his arm, and annoyed expression on his face.  “How have I not seen this before?  Have you favored no one?  Sought the attention of none?  My heart has been so sorely abused time and again, yet can it be that you, the great warrior, have escaped the oldest, bloodiest battle of them all?”  Duro was incredulous.  Woman or man, it made no difference, he still didn’t understand how his brother’s heart had never known love. 

Agron chuckled.  His little brother’s idiocy undoing and endearing him.

“Our world is small, brother.  There have been few who have captured my attention, but it was lost just as quickly.  As I said, I would waste no time with a man unworthy.”

“And what of the flesh?”  Duro actually giggled.  “Do you stand so far above we mortals, that you crave not that which all men must have?” he teased.

Agron playfully cuffed his brother in the head.  “My flesh is my own.  I would give myself to no man if my mind does not call for it, and I would take from no man merely to still fire.  I am not the fool my brother is.”

This was difficult for Duro to understand for himself, but so much like his brother. Duro would accept the attentions of nearly anyone offering, so desirous of love was he. But his brother needed no man at his side save Duro himself.


	3. Beginnings Part Two:  Understanding

Agron could tell that Duro wasn’t particularly trying to be quiet. They had all been asleep for hours, unconcerned as to the younger son’s whereabouts; a night rarely passed with every one of the family accounted for. At midnight, Agron had left his brother and Huguo to continue drinking and listening to the stories being shared over the fire in the Great Hall. Duro always came more alive when a new clan arrived. He gobbled up stories of adventures he hoped someday to have, and sights he hoped someday to see. Duro’s mind was rarely in the same place as his body. Agron found the story-telling interesting, but he was the practical one; he was always where he was, doing what needed to be done. At that particular moment, he’d been sleeping, a rest well needed before the long day ahead of winter preparations. 

Duro deliberately tripped on another random piece of furniture, cursing in an affected whisper, obviously hoping to wake his brother. “Morning light comes too soon brother,” Agron mumbled with irritation, “and you will already prove useless to work. Leave me to my sleep, idiot.”

“Apologies brother, I did not mean to wake you.” Duro giggled. 

“Fuck, you didn’t.” he grumbled, rolling over on his pallet to face his brother. “You’ve made fine attempt to wake the dead. Go to sleep before I give your head reason to be sore now, rather than later.” 

Duro plunked himself down on the pallet next to his brother as Agron complained, and his face and eyes glowed in a strip of light from the setting moon. “My head is too full of glorious wonders to ever be sore again.” He said, with a lopsided, ridiculous grin. “I have been enchanted by a true sorceress! She comes from the heavens brother, truly something other than human.” He sighed.

“The sheep are sure to be envious.” Agron rolled his eyes before closing them again in an attempt to send his brother a clear sign.

Duro snorted. “The sheep have you to keep them from loneliness, from this night, I have the warm, real body of a goddess.”

Agron sighed at his brother’s idiocy. “I thought she was a sorceress.” He muttered.

“She is both! She is perfection…she is without flaw…I am in a thrall…”

Agron slapped both palms against the floor and snapped his eyes open. “If I let you tell me, will you then let me sleep? Ass.” 

Duro sat up in his excitement, crossed his legs and leaned forward. “You have seen her! You will have noticed,” his eyes went far away to whatever place his new love now occupied. Agron slowly sat up reluctantly, and with a sigh of great patience, scooted back to lean against the wall. “Her hair is like a raven’s wing, and her eyes the bright color of the lapis stones of Kemet!” He paused dramatically, then with great flourish, whispered, “She is Tura, said to be of a western clan, but I know she is of the heavens.” Duro had a romantic heart but he was cursed as a poet.

“Tura?” Agron thought for a second, still shaking sleep off of his fuzzy brain, then actually looked at his brother. “She is Kaseme’s woman, is she not?” 

“No longer” Duro whispered conspiratorially and with a giddy grin. “Tonight she has confessed her heart to me, brother. To me!”

Agron was wide awake and alert now. Understanding danger where Duro only saw stars and enchanted things. “But she belongs to another man Duro, her feelings matter not. She is promised!” He frowned and looked at his brother hard. 

Duro was oblivious to the harshness of his brother’s tone. His eyes were still far away and Agron knew he saw nothing but a bright and shining future. “She will speak with her father Agron. She promised this to me tonight. She said…”

Agron cut him off, unable to believe even Duro would go this far. “She will what?! Have you lost all sense entirely?” He exclaimed. He turned to face his brother and grasped his shoulders. “Duro, you forget your place.” He said slowly, and firmly as though to someone gone mad. “She forgets her place! Her father has promised her to another, Duro. The eldest son of an elder, and a man proven in his own right! Have you no thought to the consequences of this stupidity? What such madness will bring down upon us…upon yourself?! Kaseme will destroy you! If Lothar does not first!”

Duro was hurt, and frustrated. He should have known better than to think Agron would understand. His eternally sensible brother, whose heart craved for nothing, couldn’t possible grasp what it meant to need someone else, to ache for their touch, their mere presence; to be willing to sacrifice anything, even his own life, to see that person to his arms. “I will speak to Uncle, and this is not stupidity! You give me no credit, thinking me ever foolish and weak. I know the challenges we face but I am willing brother. I am willing.”

At these words, Agron’s notorious temper flared, and he grabbed his brother by the arm, dragging him outside as quietly as he could, grinding his teeth against his growing rage. He would not allow the possibility of any further words to be overheard, choosing, for now, to ignore the fact that enough damage may already be done. Once they were safely at the barn, Agron shoved his idiot brother inside and kicked the door shut. 

“You. Have lost. FUCKING MIND!” he all but shouted. “You are willing to fight a man three times your better?! You are willing to face the wrath of Uncle?! You are willing to bring shame upon us all?! What right do you have to be willing?!” It was rare that Duro was on the wrong end of Agron’s rage, but he’d seen it enough to be sensibly fearful; Duro, however, was not sensible.

“I am willing!” He fumed back at his brother. “I have not forgotten my place, nor am I unaware of the consequences! But no one must fight Kaseme but me! No one must face Uncle, but me! I am not ungrateful for all he has given us, but I cannot deny my heart. If he cannot see that, then let him presume me ungrateful!”

Agron shook his head as though to dislodge the ridiculous sounds he was hearing. “So you would shame him, shame as all, and die at Kaseme’s hands? For what then? You will be dead Duro. Dead! Your girl will remain with Kaseme and there will be nothing left behind but your family—shunned. For what Duro?” Agron’s arms were crossed tightly over his chest, fists bunched, to keep from strangling his brother. 

“You give me no credit.” Duro said petulantly, hating how childish his words came out. “You are not the only man amongst us who can fight, Agron.” He pulled himself up to his full, yet incomplete height and tilted his head to look his brother directly in the eyes. “Kaseme may be older, he may be stronger, but I have reason to fight! He is an overbearing, bragging, shit with no feeling at all for Tura! She is nothing more than something else for he and his overbearing, bragging, shit family to own! I love her and that, you heartless fuck, will guide my sword!”

Agron blinked and shook his head again. Duro was as angry as he was, but he was also fighting tears, and his own feelings—the look on his face only underscoring the hurtful words he flung at Agron. It frustrated Agron to no end, these feelings Duro always had. And because they were so foreign to Agron, his brother would accuse him of being entirely heartless. His endless love and loyalty to Duro himself, dismissed because he wasn’t a man to find meaning for himself in the arms of another. Stupid. And hurtful. 

Duro continued before Agron could choose his words. “You don’t know what it means to want to fight for someone, to be willing to die for them, or lose everything for them, and because you don’t understand it, it’s a stupid notion! Gods curse the fool that sees the world from different eyes than you, brother! If my actions bring shame, then they bring shame on no one but myself, and if I die fighting for my heart, I will die knowing that I did all I could to keep her from unworthy hands. You are an arrogant fuck! You know all there is to life, you know all that a man needs, and anyone who thinks to know different from you must be saved from himself. I look at you and think that you’re the one who needs saving.” Duro glared, and mentally praised himself for cutting Agron down a bit. He was an arrogant fuck, and Duro was fed up with being made to feel that he was an idiot for…feeling. 

Agron glared back. “I don’t know what it means to be willing to fight for someone? To be willing to die for them? You…YOU would say those words to me?”

Duro blinked rapidly at his tears. ‘Shit,’ he thought. 

“Because I wouldn’t sacrifice my entire family for a fleeting notion, I am unfeeling?” Agron snarled at his brother, taking a menacing step forward. “Because I would not watch you run through, and bleed away your life away, I am an arrogant bastard? I don’t want you to die for this you stupid little shit! I don’t want you to die for anything, and this, you say, means I don’t understand what it is to love?” Agron uncrossed his arms and took another step closer to his brother, effectively towering over him, fists clenched. “You are an ungrateful fuck and you will not do this thing, if I have to beat the sense into you myself.”

It was an unfortunate thing that Duro was as pig-headed and stubborn as his brother. Even as he recognized the terrible insult that he’d laid upon Agron, he was too angry and frustrated to care, let alone offer apologies. He’d had enough of being treating like a child, too young and inexperienced to know his own mind or heart, and he’d certainly had enough of this conversation. And so, he did what any child, too young and inexperienced to know when to stop would do; with gritted teeth and a grunt, he took a swing at his brother. 

Agron ducked in time for his brother’s fist to graze his ear; not enough to do any damage, but enough to piss him off. He turned swiftly, and caught Duro in a tight headlock, fuming and cursing at him. Duro let out a noise between a howl and a bark, and surprised Agron by using his own size against him, and leaned forward into the headlock, leaving Agron slightly off balance. Duro took the opportunity to grab his brother around one knee and push back with all his weight, landing Agron on his back, the breath knocked out of him, and Duro face down and cross-ways atop him. Duro scrambled to his knees, smashing one as hard as he could and with all of his weight on his brother’s right arm, as Agron swung with his left and caught Duro square in the mouth. 

“Miserable fucking SHIT!” Agron spat as Duro tumbled off of his arm and onto his arse. Duro kicked out one leg and nailed Agron with a powerful blow between stomach and ribs. Agron grunted out a choked breath and rolled to his knees, clutching his stomach while Duro scrambled backwards.

“Sanctimonious swine cock!” Duro shouted in return, spraying bloody spittle in Agron’s general direction. He tried to stand, but his hand landed and slipped in a pile of cow dung, and he flopped on his back. Agron flung himself at his brother, straddling his chest as Duro tried maneuver himself upright, and, grabbing a handful of the short twists of his hair, punched him in the mouth again.

“Stop!” He bellowed at his little brother, as Duro half grunted, half growled in pain and frustration. “Mind yourself, you stupid fuck!” Agron gritted the words through his teeth while yanking on Duro’s hair, and digging his knees into his forearms. Duro struggled and tried to thrash, but Agron was bigger, stronger, and simply better at this. The more he bucked to escape, the harder his brother dug his knees in and gripped his hair. “You rotten little half piss! I should pull your arm off and beat your head in with it!” Agron snapped, punctuating each word with another tug at Duro’s hair, yanking his head back and forth as though to rattle something loose—or perhaps back into its proper place. 

“Get the fuck OFF of me, you fucking FUCK!” Duro was so angry he could barely think, let alone formulate any pithy insults. 

Agron leaned over until he was nose to nose with Duro and snarled at him. “You. Will. LISTEN.” Duro made a half-hearted attempt to head-butt his brother, but Agron’s hold on his hair was too tight, and he just ended up bumping his own nose and straining his neck. He was tempted to spit blood in Agron’s face but there was some small alarm in the back of his head warning him against crossing that line. So instead, he fumed, muttered curses and glared, somewhat cross-eyed at his brother’s too-close face. 

“You have threatened our family, our safety, and your own stupid life!” Agron barked into his young brother’s face. “Then you insult me, and speak to me as though someone… something other than only brother! Nearest kin! You are my BROTHER, and you would throw ME away! For what? A woman? A girl!” 

Shame started to creep in under Duro’s skin. Agron was right, Duro knew he was right, and he hated him for it. In a strange and fleeting moment of clarity, he realized that what he really wanted wasn’t so much this woman, as for his brother to understand. Agron knew exactly who he was and where he belonged in the world. Duro had no such certainty about anything, and all he really wanted was something to call his own; a place in the world. 

Agron, still gripping his hair, gave his head a jerk as Duro tried to look away. Teeth still gritted, and anger barely starting to check, he continued. “There have been others before, and there will be others to come, yet you would abandon all that hold YOU dear for one who has paid you no mind before this very night? Do you heed nothing but the sound of your own whining cock?!” Agron roughly let loose of Duro’s hair and eased his weight slightly off of his arms. 

“Is it really so impossible for you to believe she means what she says?” Duro snapped resentfully. He’d never resented his brother before; not for being stronger, a better fighter or their uncle’s favorite. But he resented this—this idea that it was not possible for someone outside of their world to favor Duro, even if only after a day and night. And what he resented even more was the creeping knowing, that was seeping into his mind, that Agron was right about all of it, and he’d made a terrible mistake. 

Agron growled in frustration. “I give no shit for what this girl says or means! I care only that you do!” He stood up off of Duro who immediately scrambled to his feet, and leaned heavily against the door of the horse’s stall in an attempt to hide his dizziness. He did not wipe the blood from his mouth or chin, as Agron began to pace. “Your value does not lie in any woman’s bed OR in her heart you stupid cock!” He gritted. “You are your own man Duro. BE your own man! No one who truly valued you would require you to go against your own kin, and what you know is right in this way. How do you not see that? Or do truly believe that you can do this thing with a pure heart and easy mind?” Agron glared. He was angry, but also afraid of Duro’s answer. It made him ill to think that he had raised his brother so poorly that he could very well believe in his heart that this thing was good. 

Duro looked up at his older brother sadly. “How easy it is for you to tell me that I am my own man.” It was then, with Agron staring hard at him, that he wiped at the blood dripping from his mouth. “Your place in the world is secure, your future is certain. You have never been anything but your own man.” He was getting angry again. “Who am I Agron? Who do I belong to? You! Yet who belongs to me? You are first son of Pippen, eldest and first nephew of Lothar, prize of the village! The rest of us…our names begin with ‘Agron’ or ‘Lothar’! I am not Duro, son of Pippen, I am ‘Agron’s younger brother!’ And when you marry, Lothar will earn a king’s dowry and we will celebrate for a week, and you will make your own home, away from here and I will no longer even hold title and position of your idiot little brother.” Words were pouring out, and Duro knew he was babbling, barely making any sense even to himself, yet he couldn’t stop. He hated himself for feeling the way he did; didn’t want to admit that he feared the day his brother would leave and he would then be left alone, with nothing but the hope of a third rate wife chosen for him as a throw away nephew.

Agron stood slightly open-mouthed and blinking at Duro, trying to process what he was hearing, and understand his own thoughts. It never would have occurred to him that Duro would fear him leaving; that he would think Agron could ever leave him. Duro knew nothing of Lothar’s oath to Agron, but it made no difference; there was no thing in this world could move him from his brother’s side. “This…all of this nonsense is because you fear I would leave you behind?” He asked with absolute incredulity.

Duro crossed his arms and looked at the floor, clearly embarrassed. “No! Not…” He looked back up at Agron, unwilling to give in quite so easily. “I DO want her! This is because I want Tura! Yet, there is some truth in what you ask.” He looked back at the floor and mumbled, “What do I have in the world Agron, if I don’t have my brother? And yes, the day that you leave soon approaches. I must think of my own place.”

Agron’s temper was so very familiar to Duro, yet it never ceased to amaze him how quickly his big brother could shift from rage to regret; he grabbed his smaller brother by the back of the neck and pressed their foreheads together in a familiar gesture of tenderness and connection. “You will always, ALWAYS be my idiot little brother you ridiculous cunt! You do belong to me--you are mine to raise and to mind and teach, and you will stand so until the day I breathe my last because I belong to you. I. Do! From the day you were born, I was sworn to you and I will protect you and fight for you until there is an ending to me, because I belong—to—YOU!”

Duro shifted his head slightly against his brother’s and closed his eyes. They stood there like that for a full minute before Duro spoke. 

“I’ve really cocked it up, haven’t I?”

“So you have.” Agron replied, not moving his head away from the contact with his little brother. “Yet we will manage. But you cannot have this girl, brother. Apologies Duro,” his voice almost cracked, “but you cannot.”

After a pause, Duro sighed. “I know.” 

They stood silently in this way, for a while.  
_____________________________________________________________________________________  
Agron chose not to speak to Lothar about what happened. He felt himself responsible for the potential disaster and so, if Kaseme or the girl’s father came for Duro, he would be the one to stand responsible for his brother. Duro continued to argue that it was his own fault, and that the consequences therefore, should fall upon him, but Argon silenced him with a look, and they spent the day working in tense silence.

By nightfall, Duro’s view of his world and his mind shifted into a new place. No one ever came.


End file.
